Phil Davis is going to let his fighting do the talking at UFC 172, but until he gets in the octagon, his talking isn’t going to stop.

After defending himself this past week against one very prominent critic who questioned his championship heart, Davis briefly took over a UFC 172 teleconference to dog current titleholder Jon Jones, promising to “break him apart like a sugar cookie.”

Davis (19-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) clearly is taking to heart UFC President Dana White’s recent comments that he is content with being the No. 4 fighter in the promotion’s rankings. This past week, he told MMAjunkie he would prove the UFC executive wrong by delivering a decisive victory against Anthony Johnson (16-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) in the co-headliner of Saturday’s pay-per-view. But it also was apparent he was using his words to reflect a desire to beat Jones, who headlines the card opposite Glover Teixeira (22-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) at Baltimore’s Baltimore Arena.

Even before the call, Davis repeatedly has predicted Jones will withdraw from UFC 172 and give him an interim title shot. But on the line before reporters, he turned it up a few notches.

“I’m not giving up on you, Phil,” Jones offered after Davis’ initial volley.

“I’m not going to give up you either, sweetheart,” Davis retorted.

“Mr. Wonderful” then spoke up, and spoke up often, as Jones marched uncomfortably through repeated questions about his most recent fight, a unanimous decision victory over Alexander Gustafsson. The outcome was fodder for several digs.

“Jon Jones came out doing his regular deal, and because Alex and I train together, I said, ‘Alex, listen man. What you really need to do is you need to strongarm him like an American – hit him with a backhand pimp slap.’ Alexander threw seven different kinds of smoke at this dude; Jon Jones didn’t know up from down when he was fighting Alex. He didn’t know what hit him. He didn’t know why he hit him that hard, why he was hitting him so much. Honestly, I still don’t understand how he lost, but I will say this: Jon Jones came back in the last two rounds, fought like a champion.

“Did he do enough to win? Absolutely not, but hey, you leave it to the judges, you leave it to the judges. Alex is going to come back stronger. But I’m going to tell you this: seven different kinds of smoke. Jon Jones was on fire. Seven different kinds of smoke, he had.”

Jones couldn’t let Davis go on forever, of course. He questioned the light heavyweight on which rounds Gustafsson won.

“I thought he won all the ones where he put them hot hands all over your forehead,” Davis cracked.

“Oh, man,” Jones groaned. “That’s not nice, Phil.”

“Hot hands! He put hot hands all over your forehead!”

At that point, Jones was one of the only conference call participants not laughing. Earlier this month during a media day, the light heavyweight champ was asked how he felt about being the verbal target of contenders looking to usurp him. He dismissed the attacks as an attempt by his competition to artificially elevate their status. On Davis’ barbs, he said, “Good for him.”

He probably strained to be a good sport when Davis interrupted questions to offer his own commentary and opinion on his performance against Gustafsson, noting at one point his frustration with the lack of questions directed at his upcoming fight.

“We all saw you were scared,” Davis, adopting a reporter’s tone, asked during a brief pause in questions. “What have you done to overcome your scared-ness? Did you get a nightlight? Do you sleep with a teddy bear now? What did you do?

“Ummm,” Jones replied. “I actually do sleep with a teddy. I do sleep with a teddy, Phil. Does that answer your question?”

Davis didn’t hear the answer, but no matter. When Jones continued on, talking about the challenges ahead with Teixeira, he found another reason to interrupt.

“The last time you said you could handle somebody in the striking department, Alex hit you so many times in the right eye, you almost turned into a pirate,” Davis said. “How are you so sure you can be better than Glover standing up, because let me tell you, I’ve seen Glover before, and what are you going to do?”

This time, Jones’ response wasn’t heard – the line was overcome by what sounded like Internet static. But asked by MMAjunkie whether he was now more motivated to fight Davis in light of his comments on the call, the champ said his feelings are unchanged.

“It doesn’t (motivate me more),” Jones said. “I have nothing to prove fighting a guy like Phil. I’ve already proven myself against a lot of amazing martial artists, and I think if anything, Phil is kind of embarrassing himself with all the antics. But it’s what he’s deciding to do today. I am a champion, and I fight the top dogs, and my whole career has been in the fast lane. I’m not going to sit here and belittle myself by entertaining Phil.

“At first, I thought it was funny, but it’s just silly. I’m fighting Glover, and he’s fighting Anthony Johnson. I need to stay focused on Glover, because Glover is a great challenge to me. I just think when you talk like that and you be so goofy, it puts more pressure on you.

“I mean, what if he goes out there and gets caught with one of those high kicks from Anthony and gets knocked out? It’s going to be really embarrassing talking so much trash to me and getting knocked out by Anthony. So I’m going to keep my mouth shut and stay focused on what I’m here for, and that’s Glover.”